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Equipment
This is a page where hunters can suggest equipment that they find to be of use. Please keep all sales to the merchant page! Weapons * Ghosts are the most common thing you'll come up against. They hate salt and act like it burns when it touches them. You should carry some salt with you at all times just in case, but rock salt out of a shotgun will dispel them for a time. Really handy if you find a violent spirit. * Most monsters have a vulnerability to silver. Some are vulnerable to stuff like consecrated iron or bronze, but silver is never a bad thing to have. Full silver blades are super expensive and hard to make, so you'll probably want to just edge a blade in silver instead. It's also almost impossible to make silver bullets properly that work right, so don't bother. Just take some hollow point rounds and fill the cavity with silver. Better yet, take a shotgun and fill the shell with silver balls from a jewelry store! * Adding to the above, you'll usually want more silver than more penetration (except for little mouse guns like a .22). If you're using silver plug bullets, carry bigger calibers like .40 or higher even if they don't penetrate as much. As long as they don't have a hard head, that should do just fine. But again, shotguns work best. * Fire is good against a lot of monsters, but it's also super dangerous. Be REALLY careful if you try to use fire, especially around people or buildings you don't want burning down. * Above all else, conceal your guns! Even if you have a license, people can be alarmed if they see you carrying unless you're in a city that's cool with it. There's lots of folding rifles if you really want one in your backpack, but there's a reason we all use sawed-off shotguns. * Holy water is super easy to get now. So many monsters can be harmed by it and lots of churches have free basins you can sneak into a squirt gun or bottle. I would make friends with someone who knows how to bless regular water too, so you can fill up a Super Soaker or make grenades. * You would be surprised at how useful paintball guns can be. You can fill balls with holy water, garlic oil, and other harmful anti-monster shit and they're legal for anyone to buy. They just get really expensive if you go for the good ones. * Likewise, some hunters have emptied out pepper spray cans to fill with holy water and other liquids. As long as you're in an area where pepper spray is legal to carry, nobody will question you having it even on a keyring. * Tasers are iffy. Some monsters have nervous systems that can be stunned with it, some not so much. They're more useful for non-lethally removing pesky humans. Armor * Most stuff that'll hurt you uses claws and teeth. If you want to maintain stealth, try leather with a stab-proof vest hidden under a jacket. If you don't need to worry about walking around normally you can get chainmail and other stuff like that, like you're fighting a shark. Some of it can be hidden under clothes, but not all of it. * Hard armor plates are expensive and most useful against bullets, which don't come up much in our line of work except for cops and angry rednecks catching you trespassing. They're also a lot harder to hide under clothing. * There's some companies that make clothes that look normal but protect against bites and scratches. * Do goggles go here? It's good to not get shit in your eyes. Load-Bearing Gear * MOLLE exists. Use it. They can attach to any horizontal or vertical belt or strap in a pinch and enough people are using them that unless you're decked out in a plate carrier nobody will notice anything weird about you walking around with a pouch or two on your hip. Think about EDC. *You can get super cheap backpacks at any store to carry your stuff, but more money means less chance of the seams ripping if you overload it or get it caught on something. *Photography and fishing vests can get you a nice way to have lots of pouches without looking like a merc. Clothing * Dressing for concealment is vital, but so is dressing for the weather. A heavy leather trenchcoat may look cool and hide an elephant gun, but you'll be miserable in Florida and look mighty suspicious. Keep your stuff in bags or find lighter clothes that cover a holster when you can't bundle up. * Wear gloves! Not just so the cops can't get your prints, but to keep your hands safe. Don't get tetanus because you grabbed a rusty nail in that abandoned asylum. * Wear comfortable shoes or boots. You may have to hike, but running from the cops is good too. First Aid * At a minimum, carry bandages and disinfectant. Even if you do everything right on a routine job you can trip and hurt yourself, or cut yourself on broken glass, or get a splinter. * Learn first aid! You never know what might happen or how dangerous these hunts are and not every doctor will patch you up with no questions asked. Know as much as you can to take care of injuries on your own. Useful Equipment * Duct tape should always be on hand. Binding, mending, bandaging wounds in a pinch. Everyone should have a roll. * Salt is really useful for a lot of hunts. Ghosts and some creatures can't cross a circle of it, and you can always throw a handful at a ghost if you don't have shells. * I've started carrying a bike lock and chain around. You can secure a door or gate that you don't want people getting into. * Road flares are a handy source of light. You can use them against a monster that's vulnerable to fire, but be careful. * Glowsticks are really useful as emergency markers or light sources. There's electronic ones that can strobe or act as a flashlight but the raver special is really cheap in a big pack. * Always carry a flashlight! I know we all have one on our phone, but a sturdy flashlight is more reliable, especially if you futz around with magic or spend too much time playing games on your phone and now you drained your battery like a dumbass. * Same as above, wear a watch. Don't rely on fragile electronics to have the time and date! If you're messing around with magic enough, I would even get a mechanical one that won't suddenly go out. * In defense of phones, they ARE really useful. You can always pull this wiki up if you know how to do it on mobile, you can keep notes, Google, etc. Just get a solid case that you can drop off a building and carry a portable charger or two. * Maybe look into a Bluetooth headset for hands-free calling? Or a radio with a headset. * UV lights are handy for spotting liquid evidence (gross), but they can also hurt Nosferatus if you're unlucky enough to run into one. * How did we get this far in without bringing up EM field meters? This is the #1 ghost tool! You can use them to track ghosts even when they're invisible! * I have an fiberscope I've used a few times. It costs a couple hundred bucks but you can see through cracks and doors with it. * I carry a tool kit everywhere I go. A Leatherman on your belt is good for most work, but I like to be prepared. I keep a power drill in mine for taking out locks. * As above, you should keep some entry tools in your car. Crowbars and sledgehammers can get into a lot. * Speaking of locks, I would really learn how to pick them and get at least a little Bogota set to put in your wallet. You can get through a surprising amount of locks with basic skills. * Keep a lighter on you. Zippos are reliable, Bics are cheap by the box, butane and plasma can light damn near anything. Whatever you pick, always have a way to set a fire. * Going back to phones, you can keep notes on your phone but a journal and pencil will never run out of battery. My friend uses a space pen that can write anywhere on anything! * Chalk. You have no idea how useful it is to carry chalk around. You can make circles, mark things, whatever. It's dirt cheap and you can carry it anywhere. * I know it's minor, but you'll want to stay hydrated and alert (and fed if you're in the woods). Keep a refillable water bottle or canteen on you, or a thermos of coffee. Bonus points: you can fill it with holy water if you need to! * So it's always useful to carry around a pen/pencil and notebook in case you don't have phone access for notes, but I did some testing and if you get one of those old fountain pens that squirts you can fill it with stuff like holy water. It'll only shoot a few inches but it can buy you some time in danger.